The start of the school year at the postsecondary level may bring with it additional stress. The COVID pandemic brought attention to mental health challenges, some of which remain to this day.
Centre College Associate Dean for Student Well-Being Ann Goodwin said it’s easy to not prioritize wellness as a busy student. Goodwin noted old favorites like eating and sleeping well, exercising, and getting outside remain important. She added there are wellness spaces in Centre residence halls.
“Some is for yoga, meditation, prayer type of thing. There’s a creative wellness space. There’s functional fitness, which means like weights,”
Goodwin said it offers a more private setting to take care of wellness needs. For freshmen, she said it’s a transition year and it’s important to be patient and give grace to yourself. The first day of class at Centre was Monday.
Goodwin said sometimes a GROUP activity can provide just the right mental health support.
“Yoga on the lawn, where we have a yoga instructor come. Well, actually we had a sunset yoga which was on the 50-yard line on the football field. And so, I think we had like 60 students out doing a yoga class at sunset on the 50-yard line. And that was pretty cool,” said Goodwin.
Goodwin said when she came to Centre in 2013, mental health counselors were seeing 16% of the student body. She noted last year that figure was 25%. Goodwin added this generation of students is more open to using services with less stigma.
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